Steel Design Student Competition Winners Announced

The first place winners in this year's Steel Design Student Competition (top to bottom): "Rebound," designed by Natacha Schnider and Chip Hubert from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo; and “Murshidibad Women's Resource Center," designed by Caroline Angell, also from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

September152015

Sixteen student design projects were honored in the 15th annual Steel Design Student Competition for the 2014-2015 academic year. Administered by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) and sponsored by AISC, the program challenges architecture students from across North America to explore a variety of design issues related to the use of steel in design and construction. A total of $14,000 in cash prizes was awarded to the winning students and their faculty sponsors.

More than 500 design projects (from nearly 1,500 students from 75 universities) were received for this year’s competition. Students competed individually and in teams to submit designs in two categories that required steel to be used as the primary structural material and with special emphasis placed on innovation in steel design. Three projects received top honors in each category.

This year’s Category I competition, titled “Library,” challenged students to envision a library as an open source exchange for all forms of information and entertainment, serving a diverse public and playing a critical role as a cultural agent in the community. First place in this category went to "Rebound," designed by Natacha Schnider and Chip Hubert from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo; second place went to “Integration through Circulation: Jesuit Community Library,” designed by Joseph Binck, Emily Girardi, Kelly Foley and Tatiana Barbuzza from Catholic University of America; and “Beacon - Heterotopia of Lagos' Public Space," designed by Nicholas Fish, Junye Zhou and Tony Tai-An Yue from Drury University, came in third.

Category II was the open submission design option and permitted students the flexibility to select a site and building program. First place in this category went to “Murshidibad Women's Resource Center," designed by Caroline Angell from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo; second place went to “Miami S Stadium,” designed by Xiao Wang, Hanwei Fan and Yifeng Guofrom from Iowa State University; and "Canopy: Georgetown Chocolate Factory," designed by Matthew Fuhr from the University of Washington, came in third.